Zulus, while in the centre of the square rose the Royal Standard! As a set-off to this we saw, not far off, a public house called the "Royal Standard," flying from its roof the white Ensign! A friend of ours brought home for his son a really capital toy model of an ironclad, with turrets, ram, fighting tops, etc., and yet flying the red ensign of the harmless merchantman!
At a church we occasionally pass, the living being in the gift of the Queen, the Royal Standard is hoisted on such Church festivals as Christmas Day, while at other times, for no apparent reason, the white Ensign is substituted—the special flag of the War Navy. Anyone venturing to point out to the authorities thereof that, as the old church could scarcely take up its position as a unit in our fighting fleet—having, in fact, quite another mission in the world—the special flag of the Royal Navy was not the most appropriate, would probably derive from the interview the impression that, after all, to the churchwardens a flag was a flag, and that it was quite possible to make a mountain out of a molehill.
To one who knows anything about it, the eruption of silk bunting, and baser fabrics innumerable that comes to the fore on any occasion of national rejoicing, is a thing of horror, not merely in the festal disfigurements of the patchwork counterpane or cotton pockethandkerchief type, seeing that to some people any coloured piece of stuff that will blow out in the wind is a valid decoration, but in the painful ignorance shown in the treatment of recognised ensigns. Some little time ago, for instance, we found ourselves in a town gaily beflagged and radiant in bunting on the occasion of a great popular rejoicing. The Royal Standard, betokening the presence in the house of some member of the Royal Family, was flying with a profusion that made it impossible to believe that all the people displaying it could be entertaining such distinguished guests. As a set-off, others were decking their houses with red flags, the symbols of revolution and bloodshed, or with yellow ones, leaving us to infer that such houses were to be avoided as nests of yellow fever or such-like deadly infection. The Stars and Stripes of the United States were, in almost every case, upside down, as indeed were many others; a thing that, except for the ignorance that was its excuse, might be considered as an insult to the various Foreign Powers, while the repeated reversal of the red ensign implied a signal of distress. The good folks really meant no harm to anybody, and they were quite happy to believe, as they strolled in their thousands up the leading streets of the town, that their decorations were a great success. At the same time, a little more knowledge would have done them no harm. As it is an insult to hoist one national flag below another, it is a rigid law that in all official decorations national flags may not be so placed, but
enthusiastic and irresponsible burgesses, in the depth of their ignorance, ignore all such considerations of international courtesy, and in the length of a short street commit sufficient indiscretion to give umbrage to all mankind. It may be said that
"Happiness too swiftly flies,
Thought would destroy their Paradise"—
that "he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow," that
"From ignorance our comfort flows,
The only wretched are the wise"—
but despite all this philosophy, that "where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise," no one is the worse for knowing something about the matter with which he is dealing; and if proverbial philosophy is to count for anything in the matter, a not inappropriate moral may be quoted as to the rushing in of fools where their betters feel a judicious modesty. The confidence of knowledge is better than the confidence of ignorance, and would certainly, in street flagging, produce a more satisfactory result.